You Don't Need to Invent It If It Already Exists

What is it about scientists that they can’t leave well enough alone! So many of them seem to spend a lot of time trying to create things that already exist.

I was reminded of this when I read about a new study done by researchers at the University of Porto, in Portugal.

Now, it’s long been known that olive oil seems to have some strong heart protective qualities. Well, these researchers found an element in olive oil called DHPEA-EDA, that seems to offer more protection to red blood cells than any other part of olive oil.

So now their next step is to try and develop a kind of “super functional olive oil”, one that is richer in DHPEA-EDA, one that is specifically designed to reduce heart disease.

Why? Couldn’t people just use olive oil? Doesn’t that already work. Doesn’t that already taste delicious. And maybe, just maybe it’s not that one part of the olive oil works better than the others when it comes to protecting your heart, maybe it’s the blend of the different elements in olive oil that is really the key.

It’s like looking at a carrot and saying “hmm, people who eat a lot of these seem to be healthier than people who don’t, so let’s take one element, say the thing that makes it orange, put that in a pill and say that’s the element that makes carrots so good for you.”

They might be right. But then again there are dozens of other elements in carrots that might be the reason they are so healthy. Or maybe it’s all of them together, the synergistic effect of the combination of minerals and vitamins in the veg that are its true source of health.

So instead of taking a beta carotene supplement you could just eat a carrot.

And what about red wine! There’s a chemical in red wine called resveratol that seems to have strong protective qualities for the heart. So, guess what? Scientists are trying to create a resveratol pill. Why? It is already right there, in red wine. Who needs a pill for that.

Or maybe we could take the pill and then wash it down with a nice glass of chianti!

It seems to me there are more than enough things out there that we don’t understand – such as how Adam Sandler is still getting paid to make movies? – that it’s a waste of time for us to continue messing around with things we do understand.

We know olive oil is good for us. We know red wine has heart protective benefits. Move on. Find answers to something we don’t know.